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Struggle For Freedom

Struggle For Freedom In 1831 in Southampton county, a slave named Nat Turner did something so revolutionary that to this day it is still an uncomfortable subject for a small town in Virginia. With very little documented history, Stephen B. Oates tells how one slave turned the entire south upside down on one hot August Sunday. Oate’s own struggle in finding the truth about the past was something that this small town of Southampton was tying to forget. As a child Nat, allowed to play with the white children, didn’t fully understand what it meant to be a slave until he was a teenager and was separated from the white kids. As the white kids were going to school, Nat was going to the fields to labor. At this moment in his life, Nat came to realize what the word slave meant. When holidays would come, the slaves would celebrate the day with dancing and drinking. Nat on the other hand, took this time to read the bible. With the markings of a prophet on his face and his ability to read and write, all the slaves knew that Nat was very special. While reading the bible more and more, Nat began hearing voices. “Seek ye the kingdom of heaven and all things shall be added unto you”. Nat felt he had been chosen for some purpose but was not quiet sure what this purpose was. About this time Nat started holding praise meetings and seeing visions of a revolution. Keeping these visions to himself and his loyal followers, Nat waited for a sign to start the revolution. In 1831, an lunar eclipse occurred, Nat took this as the sign he had been waiting for. July 4, the day for the revolution came and went. Historians are not quite sure why, but it is believed that Nat was unsure that this was the sign he had been waiting for so long. On August 13, 1831 a black spot appeared on the sun, which at the time was a very odd phenomenon. Nat knew it was time for Sunday, August 21, Nat and his other close followers began plotting their first move on the plantation owners. The plan was to strike in the early morning catching the whites off guard and gather more slaves for his army as the went. Just after midnight they strode up onto the Travis plantation with the intention of killing every white man in their path, including women in children. Climbing through the window of Joseph and Sally Turner’s house all was quiet. Still asleep in their beds, Nat took the first swing at Joseph’s head and missed but another slave named Will came and killed the family before they knew what was happening. The night went on, sneaking up on other plantations and killing families before they knew what happened. Once day broke the word had gotten out about the revolution and most homes they came upon were found to be empty. By noon Nat’s revolutionaries had murdered 60 whites, ironically though their leader Nat had only killed one white person. Rumors spread quick throughout Southampton, stories of their army numbered over 500 strong when in actuality there were only around 60. The whites began forming armies of their own to destroy Nat’s revolution. To continue the revolution Nat felt they needed to storm Jerusalem, a town next to Southampton, but on the way they encountered one of the whites militias and Nat lost most of his army that he had formed. While trying to reach Blunts plantation their was miscommunication and Nat was separated from what was left of his army. In fear, Nat dug a hole underneath a fence post and hid. By August 28 all the revolutionaries that were still alive were locked up except for Nat. For six weeks Nat hid out in Southampton county only to come out at night for food. On October 30 Nat was discovered and put in jail. After being found guilty, Nat and the 21 other blacks previously caught were hung in 1832. After the rebellion much of the blame for the insurrection was directed toward the North for their liberal newspapers and abolitionists. Trying to understand what could have caused such a horrific act was never fully understood. Southampton just wanted to forget about the most violent slave revolt in United States history that sent a shiver down every slave holders spine in the south. With the little documented history in the libraries in Southampton, I feel Oates portrayed what happened decently to some extent. Considering what had to work with, he tried to make the book as unbiased as he could One problem I do have with the book is Oates using Nat’s confession, under the conditions Nat must have been in at that time I feel he was most likely pursued into saying things that the public wanted to hear. For that reason, it is very hard to make a judgment on how to portray Nat Turner himself. Since he did only kill one person during his rebellion, I feel that Nat wanted his freedom but didn’t want to partake in the actual revolution. Oates portrayed Nat very well by not making him into a hero. Nat was a slave that drew up a plan to wipe out every white person that they came across including women and children. Oates was very graphic with the details of what the slaves did to the white families to let the reader understand how brutal these slaves were with the whites. He made sure the reader understood that these slaves were not out just to take revenge on their masters but to take revenge on the Stephen B. Oates wanted to give recognition to a revolutionary that had been removed from mainstream history criteria. With only scattered documents, and controversial confession, Oates attempted to give a fair interpretation of what happened in Southampton county in 1873. Though doing this might have not been what the people in Southampton wanted, but Oates knew it was necessary and it revitalized a time in history that had not been fully researched. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1030